Do You Trash Talk in the Mirror?

It's no secret that many women—sadly, sometimes it seems like almost ALL women—have complicated relationships with their bodies and weight. And that's putting it mildly. If you've ever heard a group of women in a dressing room or locker room bemoaning the size of their thighs or hips or any other body part, or if you've been that person doing the bemoaning—it can be downright depressing.

(To be honest, I can't say I haven't sometimes been one of those women. To wit: I just recently ordered a new bathing suit from a catalog and when it arrived, I had some, um, choice words to say about my rear view. The swimsuit went back faster than you can say Free Shipping.)

And some new research sheds light on some of the nuances to this sort of body snark. In a study from Ohio University, psychologists found that a woman's "appreciation" of her body (or lack thereof) is more related to what other people think of her figure—not her actual weight. Researchers there note that the most powerful influence on what a woman thinks about their body it how they believe it's perceived by the people around them. On a more positive note—and something to takeaway from this—women who are more able to focus in on how their bodies function and feel have more positive attitudes about their physical selves. These women tend to eat healthier and more according to what their bodies need and crave.

And speaking of the locker room trash talk.... Another new study, this one published in Psychology of Women Quarterly, finds that people who engage in that chatter feel worse about their bodies than those who don't. While on one hand this seems like a "no-duh" finding to me—of COURSE they feel worse! They're aiming insults at their abs, after all!—on the other hand I wonder if it's not one of those self-fulfilling prophecy things.

As in: If you pipe up about your paunch, you're in fact digging a deeper hole of dissatisfaction. Funny thing is, the women in the study actually claim that venting their body blues makes them feel better—that it's somewhat of a coping strategy! And even crazier, the prevalence of fat talk seems to be unrelated to whether or not a woman actually is carrying extra poundage.

Bottom line: Sometimes our bodies are all in our head.